My goal for following the ABC show Fat March has been to bring attention to the fact that people can get life insurance at affordable rates even if they are overweight in most instances. I also wanted people to see, as the participants drop weight, what a difference it can make in the cost of their life insurance.

From my first post last week you may remember that I laid out the basis of the quotes as being what one could expect due to weight alone, with no health issues. All quotes are based on $250,000 of 20 year term insurance. In all cases I am using the best possible underwriting in the industry to make sure the prices are as good as it can get. I would also like to correct the starting weights that I used for the participants. I took those weights from www.zap2it.com and they were close, but not accurate.

There are, at this point, just 10 participants remaining with Shane and Kim not making it past the first week. I was sorry to see Shane get voted off. I truly hope he will pick up another avenue of weight loss that is a little less brutal. Of the 10 remaining participants, the following is their starting weight and their current weight after having walked 150 miles, followed by their original life insurance quote and their current quote. It’s important to understand when looking at rates, that rates don’t go down pound by pound. A rate class can often span a 20-25# range, so even though significant loss has occurred, it’s possible to remain at the same rate until more weight is lost. That was not the case this week as everyone made headway.

1. Michael started at 319 and is now 286. Start $735, Now $605.

2. Chantal started at 250 and is now 236. Start $535, Now, $471

3. Will started at 472 and is now 441. Start uninsurable, Now $619

4. Wendy started at 242 and is now 223. Start $575, Now $477

5. Anthony started at 433 and is now 396. Start $560, Now $500

6. Sam started at 382 and is now 351. Start $613, Now $553

7. Jami Lynn started at 236 and is now 218. Start $430, Now $356

8. Loralie started at 241 and is now 222. Start $381, Now $331

9. Shea started at 289 and is now 272. Start $355, Now$310

10. Matt started at 389 and is now 355. Start $613, Now $525

Will had this comment after the first round of quotes that he posted on myspace.com, “So this one guy has a blog about life insurance. For some reason, he thought it would be interesting to tabulate the life insurance rates for the Fat March contestants. Very expensive for everyone, but according to him, me and Shane are the only two that are UNINSURABLE!!!! I thought that was funny as ****.

Wonder if I’m insurable now, lol

Well, the answer is yes. I know that for younger people especially, it is hard to consider something like life insurance seriously, but someday the reality of being uninsurable could have a real impact on a person and their family. I think it is awesome what all of them have accomplished, and the adversity they have overcome.

Bottom line. It appears that weight issues can be overcome in what appears to be a fairly brutal manner. The good news is that with each loss of weight comes a healthier life and lower life insurance rates.